Chronology - Raven Row

Chronology
1923 24 March
Běla Helclová is born in Terezín, Czechoslovakia, into the family of an army musician.
1 September
German invasion of Poland starts the Second
World War.
1941
Graduates from business school and begins
working for the publishing house Mladé
proudy, later renamed Dílo.
1942
Czech artist collective Skupina 42 [Group 42]
is officially founded. Jiří Kolář is a member.
1929
Attends grammar school in the Orlické
Mountains in East Bohemia.
1933
Her family moves to Újezd nad Lesy where
they buy a house.
Attends the Grammar School for Girls
in Vodičkova Street in Prague.
1934
Her father dies.
1935
Falls ill with tuberculosis and undergoes
long-term medical treatment.
1938
Leaves grammar school and attends private
business school in Prague.
Nazi Germany occupies the Sudetenland
(northern and western border regions
of Czechoslovakia).
1939 16 March
Wehrmacht troops occupy the remainder
of Czechoslovakia as Hitler proclaims the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
1943
After Mladé proudy is shut down by the
authorities, leaves for Zlín to work in
the Baťa shoe factory and avoid forced labour
in Germany.
1944
Meets Jiří Kolář in Zlín for the first time.
1945 January
Leaves heavily bombed Zlín and returns
to Prague.
April
Third Republic comes into being with
a National Coalition government headed
by Edvard Beneš.
May
Works in the reopened publishing house Dílo.
1947
Announcement of Marshall Plan by the USA
ignites the Cold War.
1948
Skupina 42 ceases to exist.
25 February
Under pressure from Moscow, Beneš
appoints Communist Klement Gottwald
as Prime Minister.
2 June
Beneš resigns from presidency and
is succeeded by Gottwald.
105
Běla Kolářová in Terezín, 1926
1959
Moves to Prague’s Vinohrady district where
she has her own darkroom.
1949
Marries Jiří Kolář.
Czechoslovakia becomes a member
of the Council for Mutual Economic
Assistance (Comecon).
1960 11 July
Czechoslovakia becomes the Czechoslovak
Socialist Republic (until 1989).
1952 December
Jiří Kolář is arrested and imprisoned for nine
months after the manuscript of his collection
of poems Prométheova játra [Prometheus’s
Liver] is found during a police raid on the flat
of literary critic Václav Černý.
1961
Creates her first 'artificial negatives'
by pressing microscopic organic matter
or small everyday objects onto paraffincoated sheets of celluloid or inserting
them between sheets of cellophane, which
then serve as photographic negatives.
1955
Starts working with a Flexaret camera
purchased by Jiří Kolář.
14 May
Czechoslovakia signs the Warsaw Pact.
1962
Creates her first ‘light drawings’ by projecting
light directly onto the photographic paper.
Participates in her first group exhibition,
Nová jména ve fotografii [New Names in
Photography] at Klub výtvarných umělců
Mánes, Prague.
1956
Falls ill again with tuberculosis. Leaves work
and focuses on photography.
1957
Produces her first photographic series,
‘Dětské hry’ [Children’s Games].
1963
Creates her first ‘arranged photographs’
of everyday objects.
Artist collective Křižovatka [Crossroads]
is founded in Prague by Jiří Kolář and
Jiří Padrta.
1964
Starts photographing hair and creates her
first assemblages.
Joins Křižovatka as one of two women
artists.
March–April
Participates in the first exhibition of
Křižovatka at Galerie Václava Špály, Prague.
1965
Participates in the group exhibition Současná
fotografie [Contemporary Photography]
at Klub výtvarných umělců Mánes, Prague.
27 August–26 September
Participates in the group exhibition Objekt
[Object] curated by Eva Petrová at Galerie
Václava Špály, Prague.
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Běla Kolářová, undated (early 1950s)
1966 14 January–6 February
Participates in the group exhibition Obraz
a písmo [Image and Writing] curated by Jiří
Padrta at Galerie Václava Špály, Prague, travelling to Oblastní galerie Vysočiny v Jihlavě,
Jihlava, and Regionální muzeum Kolín, Kolín.
6 May–5 June
Participates in the group exhibition
Surrealismus a fotografie [Surrealism and
Photography] curated by Václav Zykmund
at Dům pánů z Kunštátu – Dům umění
města Brna, Brno, travelling to Museum
Folkwang, Essen, Germany.
Participates in the group exhibition
Arlington-une. Summer ’66 at Arlington Mill,
Bibury, UK.
3 November–27 November
First solo exhibition at Galerie na Karlově
náměstí, Prague.
Contributes an artist statement to Soudobá
fotografie v Československu [Contemporary
Photography in Czechoslovakia], an anthology compiled by art historian Anna Fárová.
5 January
Reformist Alexander Dubček becomes
First Secretary of the Communist Party
of Czechoslovakia [KSČ] and initiates a period
of liberalisation known as the Prague Spring.
10 March–17 April
Participates in the group exhibition Nová
citlivost. Křižovatka a hosté [New Sensitivity.
Křižovatka and Guests] at Dům umění
města Brna, Brno, travelling to Galerie umění
Karlovy Vary, Karlovy Vary, and Výstavní
síň Mánes, Prague.
27 March–12 May
Participates in the group exhibition Klub kon­
krétistů [Club of Concrete Artists] at Oblastní
galerie Vysočiny v Jihlavě, Jihlava, travelling
to Kulturní středisko města Ústí nad Labem,
Ústí nad Labem.
20–21 August
Warsaw Pact armies invade Czechoslovakia.
The exhibition Nová citlivost at Výstavní
síň Mánes in Prague is closed prematurely
due to the occupation of the building by
Soviet troops.
1967
Becomes a candidate member of the Union
of Czechoslovak Visual Artists (until 1970).
Participates in the group exhibition
Umění písma/Poesie písma [The Art of Writing /
The Poetry of Writing] at Moravské zemské
muzeum, Brno.
Participates in the group exhibition
11 Künstler aus der Tschechoslowakei [11 Artists
from Czechoslovakia] at Studio Willmeroth,
Augsburg, Germany.
1968
Divorces from Jiří Kolář.
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Gallery visitor at Běla Kolářová’s first solo exhibition
at Galerie na Karlově náměstí, Prague, 1966
Běla and Jiří Kolář with the assemblage Clip in the Clips, 1969
1975
Creates her first make-up drawings.
Accompanies Jiří Kolář to New York for
his exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum.
11 July–8 August
Participates in the group exhibition
Internationale visuele poëzie [International
Visual Poetry] at the ’t Hoogt, Utrecht,
travelling to Galerie de Doelen, Rotterdam,
and Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
August
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová: Fotografie at
Minigalerie Výzkumného ústavu veterinárního
lékařství [Minigallery at Veterinary Research
Institute], Brno.
1969 16 January
During nonviolent mass protests against
Soviet occupation, student Jan Palach immolates himself in Wenceslas Square, Prague.
17 April
Gustáv Husák becomes First Secretary of the
KSČ and launches counter-reformist policies
known as ‘Normalisation’.
14 August–31 August
Shows arrangements of perishable foodstuffs
in the exhibition Někde něco [Somewhere
Something] alongside work by Jiří Kolář
and the artists’ couple Zorka and Jan Ságl
at Galerie Václava Špály, Prague.
23 September–28 October
Participates in the II. Pražský salon [Second
Prague Salon] at U Hybernů, Prague.
Exhibits with Jiří Kolář in the framework
of the literary festival neue literatur in hof,
Hof, Germany.
1977 1 January
Jiří Kolář signs the Charter 77 against
‘Normalisation’.
1978 27 April
Signatories of the Charter 77 found the
dissident Committee for the Defence
of the Unjustly Persecuted (Výbor na obranu
nespravedlivě stíhaných).
1970
Jiří Kolář suffers a stroke.
1971
Marries Jiří Kolář for the second time.
1979
Moves to West Berlin with Jiří Kolář who
has been offered a one-year residency by the
German Academic Exchange Service DAAD.
1972
The anthology Soudobá fotografie v Československu is seized by censors and destroyed upon
its publication.
1980
Moves to Paris with Jiří Kolář.
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Běla Kolářová’s Czech Visual Artists’ Fund membership card, 1982–84
1981
After the couple fail to get their visas
extended, returns to Prague to sort out their
personal affairs and is forbidden to leave
the country until 1985. Her husband decides
to stay in Paris to attend to his exhibition
at Galerie Lelong and will later be condemned
in absentia.
1982
Becomes a member of the Czech Visual
Artists’ Fund (until 1984).
1984
Participates in the group exhibition Aspects
of Czechoslovak Photography at Thackery &
Robertson, San Francisco.
1985
Obtains permission to leave Czechoslovakia
and reunites with her husband in exile in Paris.
Participates in the group exhibition
Sensibilités contemporaines : 70 artistes d’origine
tchèque et slovaque hors Tchécoslavaquie 1970-1984
[Contemporary Sensibilities: Seventy Artists
of Czech and Slovak Origin Outside Czechoslovakia] at Librairie La Dérive, Grenoble.
1987
Participates in the group exhibition Deuxième
exposition annuelle internationale d’art miniature
[Second Annual International Exhibition of
Miniature Art] at Galerie Del Bello, Toronto.
1988
Participates in the group exhibitions Spring
’68: Exhibition of Seven Czech Artists, Summer
Show and Homage to the Square: Josef Albers and
99 Invited Artists at Flaxman Gallery, London.
Participates in the group exhibition
Autour de la Revue K [Around Revue K]
at Librairie La Lune et les Feux, Paris.
Participates in the group exhibition
45 artistes tchèques exposent à Paris au bénéfice
du Forum civique [45 Czech Artists Exhibit
in Paris for the Benefit of the Civic Forum]
at Galerie l’Usine, Paris.
1989 15 June–27 August
Participates in the group exhibition
Stopadesát fotografíí [One Hundred and Fifty
Photographs] at Moravská galerie v Brně,
Brno, travelling to Galerie výtvarného umění
v Hodoníně, Hodonín.
9 November
Fall of the Berlin Wall.
17 November
Suppression of peaceful student demonstration
in Prague by riot police marks the beginning
of the Velvet Revolution.
10 December
Husák resigns from Presidency.
29 December
Playwright and human rights activist Václav
Havel is elected President.
1990 31 March–27 May
Participates in the group exhibition Anwesenheit bei Abwesenheit – Fotogramme und die Kunst
des 20. Jahrhunderts [Presence of Absence:
Photograms and the Art of the Twentieth
Century], Schweizerische Stiftung für die
Photographie at Kunsthaus Zürich.
24 October–24 November
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová : Photographies
1956-1964 at Galerie J. & J. Donguy, Paris.
1991 4 February–3 March
Participates in the group exhibition Český
informel: Průkopníci abstrakce z let 1957–1964
[Czech Informal Art: Pioneers of Abstraction]
at Galerie hlavního města Prahy and
Galerie Václava Špály, Prague, travelling
to Severočeská galerie výtvarného umění
v Litoměřicích, Litoměřice.
29 September–24 November
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Galerie
U Bílého jednorožce, Klatovy.
1992 9 January–3 February
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová: Fotografie
1961–1966 at Pražský dům fotografie, Prague.
25 February–29 March
Participates in the group exhibition
Československá fotografie v exilu (1939–1989)
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27 November–12 January 1996
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová: Malá retrospektiva [Small Retrospective] at Galerie ’60/’70,
Prague.
[Czechoslovakian Photography in Exile],
Výstavní síň Mánes, Prague.
7 April–3 May
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová: Fotografie
z počátku šedesátých let ze sbírek Moravské galerie
v Brně [Photographs from the Early Sixties
from the Collections of the Moravian Gallery]
at Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno.
1996 13 October–30 November
Participates in the group exhibition
Zpřítomnění: Přírůstky galerie z let 1987–1994
[Revitalisation: New Acquisitions], Galerie
Klatovy/Klenová, Janovice nad Úhlavou.
1993 1 January
Czechoslovakia dissolves into the Czech
Republic and Slovakia.
27 October–2 January 1994
Participates in the group exhibition Poesie
racionality: Konstruktivní tendence v českém
výtvarném umění šedesátých let [Poetry
of Rationality: Constructivist Tendencies
in the Czech Visual Arts from the Sixties]
at České muzeum výtvarných umění, Prague.
1997 6 March–13 April
Solo exhibition, Běla Kolářová: práce z let 1956–
1996 [Work from 1956 to 1996] at Severočeská
galerie výtvarného umění v Litoměřicích,
Litoměřice, travelling to Dům umění města
Brna, Brno, and Východočeská Galerie
v Pardubicích, Pardubice.
7 February–31 December
Participates in the group exhibition Mezi
tradicí a experimentem: práce na papíře a
s papírem v českém výtvarném umění 1939–1989
[Between Tradition and Experiment: Works
on Paper and with Paper in Czech Visual Art]
at Muzeum umění Olomouc, Olomouc.
4 September–16 November
Participates in the group exhibition Česká koláž
[Czech Collage] at Palác Kinských, Prague.
1994
Participates in the group exhibition Quatorze
artistes autour de la Revue K [Fourteen
Artists Around Revue K] at Galerie Le Pont
Neuf, Paris.
27 May–16 October
Participates in the group exhibition Europa,
Europa – Das Jahrhundert der Avantgarde
in Mittel- und Osteuropa [The Century of
the Avant-Garde in Central and Eastern
Europe] at Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle
der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn.
23 June–12 September
Participates in the group exhibition Nová
citlivost [New Sensitivity] at Severočeská
galerie výtvarného umění v Litoměřicích,
Litoměřice, travelling to Východočeská
galerie, Pardubice, Oblastní galerie Vysočiny
v Jihlavě, Jihlava, Moravská galerie v Brně,
Brno, Muzeum umění Olomouc,
Olomouc, Dům umění v Opavě, Opava,
Pražákův palác, Brno.
1998 11–30 March
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová: Neznámé
písmo (Fotogramy, derealisace, asambláže
1956–1996) [Unknown Writing (Photograms,
Derealisations, Assemblages)] at Galerie
U prstenu, Prague.
1999
The Kolářs leave Paris and return to Prague
for good.
27 April–13 June
Exhibits with her husband in Jiří Kolář,
Běla Kolářová: Výběr z tvorby [Selected Works]
at Výstavní síň ‘13’, Pilsen.
21 October–28 November
Participates in the group exhibition Umění
zrychleného času: Česká výtvarná scéna 1958–1968
[Art When Time Accelerated: The Czech Art
1995 15 November–9 December
Participates in the group exhibition Revue K
at Galerie J. & J. Donguy, Paris.
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16 May–10 August
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Amos
Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki.
20 September–2 May 2004
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Egon Schiele
Art Centrum, Český Krumlov.
Scene from 1958 to 1968] at České muzeum
výtvarných umění v Praze, Prague,
travelling to Státní galerie výtvarného umění
v Chebu, Cheb.
24 November–26 March 2000
Participates in the group exhibition Akce,
slovo, pohyb, prostor: Experimenty v umění
šedesátých let [Action, Word, Movement,
Space: Experiments in the Art of the Sixties],
Galerie hlavního města Prahy, Prague.
2004 1 September–10 October
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová: Fotografie
a asambláže [Photographs and Assemblages] at
Galerie Montanelli – výstavní prostor, Prague.
10 September–17 October
Participates in the group exhibition Šedesátá:
Ze sbírky Galerie Zlatá husa [The Sixties:
From the Collection of Zlatá Husa Gallery]
at Dům umění města Brna, Brno, travelling
to Galerie umění Karlovy Vary, Karlovy Vary.
21 October–28 November
Participates in the exhibition Jeden život, dvě
díla: Běla Kolářová, Jiří Kolář [One Life, Two
Works], Galerie Františka Drtikola, Příbram.
2001 14 February–18 March
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Galerie Jiřího
a Běly Kolářových, Prague.
31 May–26 August
Participates in the group exhibition Objekt–
objekt: Metamorfózy v čase [Object–Object:
Metamorphoses in Time], České muzeum
výtvarných umění v Praze, Prague, travelling
to Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno.
14 June–30 September
Participates in the group exhibition Fotografie
jako umění v Československu let 1959–1968
[Photography as Art in Czechoslovakia],
Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno.
2005 4–24 April
Participates in the group exhibition Emigration
out/in 1: Běla Kolářová, Jiří Kolář, Radek Kratina,
Hugo Demartini at Saarländische Galerie –
Europäisches Kunstforum e.V., Berlin.
23 June–9 October
Participates in the group exhibition Česká
fotografie 20. století [Czech Photography
of the Twentieth Century] at Galerie hlavního
města Prahy, Prague.
19 October–4 November
Participates in the exhibition Pokušení
a pokoušení: Běla Kolářová, Jiří Kolář [Temptation and Tempting], Studio Paměť, Prague.
2002 15 July–30 September
Participates in the group exhibition Anima
Animus (Manželské páry v generaci 60. let)
[Married Couples from the Generation of
the Sixties], Galerie Zlatá husa, Prague,
travelling to Dům umění města Brna, Brno.
11 August
Jiří Kolář dies in Prague.
Donates Jiří Kolářs’s personal collection
to Museum Kampa, Prague.
2006 27 January–9 April
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Národní
galerie v Praze (Sbírka moderního
a současného umění, Veletržní palác), Prague.
27 September–31 December
Solo exhibition Experiment, řád, důvěrnost:
Ženské rastry Běly Kolářové [Experiment,
Order, Intimacy: The Feminine Patterns
of Běla Kolářová] at Muzeum umění
Olomouc, Olomouc.
2003 27 February–25 May
Participates in the group exhibition Umění
je abstrakce: Česká vizuální kultura 60. let
[Art is an Abstraction: Czech Visual Culture
of the Sixties] at Jízdárna Pražského hradu,
Prague, travelling to Uměleckoprůmyslové
muzeum, Brno, and Muzeum umění
Olomouc, Olomouc.
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2011 12 February–26 March
Her work is shown in the exhibition Běla
Kolářová & Lucie Stahl at Galerie der Stadt
Schwaz, Austria, travelling to Kölnischer
Kunstverein, Cologne.
13 May–18 June
Her work is shown in the exhibition
Curated by_Marie Klimešová at Galerie
Krobath, Vienna.
15 July–1 October
Her work is shown in the group exhibition
Live Your Questions Now, Mackintosh Museum,
Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow.
2007 16 June–23 September
Participates in documenta 12 in Kassel.
2008 26 April–4 June
Participates in the group exhibition Běla
Kolářová/Falke Pisano/Janice Kerbel/Sofie
Thorsen at Galerie Krobath Wimmer, Vienna.
15 July–24 August
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Museum
Kampa, Prague.
23 September–29 November
Participates in the group exhibition Cutting
Realities: Gender Strategies in Art at Austrian
Cultural Forum, New York.
2012 25 October–31 March 2013
Her work is shown in the exhibition Od Tiziana
po Warhola: Muzeum umění Olomouc 1951–
2011 [From Titian to Warhol: Olomouc
Museum of Art 1951–2011], Muzeum umění
Olomouc, Olomouc.
6 December–3 March 2013
Her work is shown in the group exhibition
Element F: Fotografie a umění ve druhé polovině
20. století [The Ph Factor: Photography and
Fine Art in the Second Half of the Twentieth
Century] at Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno.
2009 27 May–21 February 2011
Participates in the group exhibition elles@
centrepompidou, artistes femmes dans les collections
du Centre Pompidou [Women Artists in
the Collection of Centre Pompidou]
at Centre Pompidou – Musée National d’Art
Moderne, Paris.
29 September–31 January 2010
Participates in the group exhibition MuMo
Opening at Muzeum Montanelli, Prague.
23 October–5 December
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Galerie
Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich.
13 November–14 February 2010
Participates in the group exhibition Gender
Check – Rollenbilder in der Kunst Osteuropas
[Femininity and Masculinity in the Art
of Eastern Europe] at mumok, Vienna.
2013 31 January–7 April
Retrospective exhibition at Raven Row,
London.
2010 5 March–2 May
Solo exhibition Běla Kolářová at Galerie
Fotografie Louvre, Prague.
12 April
Běla Kolářová dies in Prague.
20 May–25 July
Her work is shown in the group exhibition
Unto This Last at Raven Row, London.
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